Numeral Classifiers and Plurals in Indonesian Nominal

Abstract

Chierchia’s (1998a, 1998b) theory of the Nominal Mapping Parameter classifies languages into three types on the basis of its bare nominal semantics. The claim is that all languages should belong to one of the three settings in the model. Chierchia suggests that the presence of classifiers is associated with the absence of a semantically active and obligatory plural morpheme in classifier languages (i.e. [+arg,-pred] languages). However, this seems not to be the case for Indonesian as a classifier language since its plural morphology is both syntactically and semantically active. We have found that Indonesian is a language which has a dual system, i.e. the one being a [+arg,-pred] language because of its classifier system and bare NP arguments, and the other being a [+arg, +pred] language with respect to its plural morphology.